SMETHPORT — It won’t count for anything more than bragging rights, but teenagers from at least seven local towns will come together on Saturday for what should be a competitive night of baseball.
The Smethport Legion Post 138 — made up of high schoolers from Smethport, Port Allegany and Otto-Eldred — will host a baseball scrimmage against the Elk-McKean All-Stars at 7 o’clock at the Smethport baseball diamond.
The Elk-McKean team, which advanced to the Junior League World Series in 2019 and then followed that up with a trip to the East Regional Tournament in Senior League last year, is made up of players from Wilcox, Johnsonburg, Ridgway and Kane.
The team recently returned to practice and is eager to get back on the diamond, according to coach Casey Zimmerman.
“They all showed up (to practice) and I had a grin from ear to ear,” Zimmerman told The Ridgway Record’s Bob Parana. “As the practices got rolling, everybody got back into the swing of things. The kids were joking around with each other, having fun, and being competitive. It was just a great atmosphere.”
Although they’ll have no chance to defend their success at the state level over the past two years with the cancellation of all playoff tournaments this summer, the team will travel to Ohio to play in three tournaments this summer.
The Smethport Legion team, meanwhile, was scheduled to play games in the Elk-McKean Independent League after the original legion season was canceled, but the status of that league is currently up in the air.
“We are doing everything we need to do to proceed with the league,” Smethport Legion head coach Brandon Ruffner said. “We’ll potentially play with four teams (Emporium, Coudersport, Elk-McKean, Smethport) and there was a collective agreement that anything is better than nothing even if we only play 6,7,8 games it’s better than what we have right now.”
But for now, Saturday is a great place to start for Ruffner and his players — who have not played a competitive sport with a scoreboard in over three months.
“We would love to see the place packed (on Saturday),” Ruffner said.
“People have been cooped up for so long now that it’ll be really nice to give people, and especially the kids, something — even if it’s just a scrimmage.”
The scrimmage is open to the public and will feature full uniforms and have certified umpires.
“I know last year Smethport was one of the top Legion teams,” Zimmerman said. “I know they have some mature athletic kids up there that have pretty decent velocity in the mid-80s. I’m sure it’s going to be a good ball game.”
